A noble torture
by Heepeoplehowdy
Summary: What if Morgareth had still had Will and Evanlyn captured, and gave Duncan, Horace and Halt the choice to choose who will be tortured and who not. Will they survive or will one of them don't see the light of another day again? AU


**Disclaimer: I don't own the characters from the books. **

It's the day of the battle against Morgareth. Morgareth had captured Will and Evanlyn. Halt, Duncan and Horace were making sure that their army was prepared for battle. When suddenly seven wargals came forward. Five wargals were holding Will, who almost managed to escape, while two others were holding a defeated Evanlyn. When they came in sight, everybody froze. Everyone knew that Evanlyn was secretly the princess Cassandra, daughter of king Duncan. Most of them knew the boy next to her, who was wearing a Rangerscape. Morgareth spoke up: 'I see you recognize our guests. Sadly for you, you won't be getting them both back in one piece.' He laughed evilly. Duncan asked with a worried voice: 'what do you mean?' 'What I mean is, you can have one of them back and the other will be tortured in front of you. Choose one or I'll kill them. Your choice.' There was a shocked silence after that. Then suddenly you could hear Will's voice: 'Leave me, I'll be fine.' Morgareth turned around, and to everyone's horror took out Will's knife. He looked around, thinking, then suddenly he make a nasty cut on Will's arm. He didn't make a sound and looked at Morgareth with eyes full of anger, defiance and a courage Morgareth had never seen before. He looked back at the army of his enemies and asked: 'So what's the answer? The Rangersapprentice or the princess?' Halt looked at Duncan with a pleading look, but they both knew what was the right choice. 'I'm sorry Halt,' Duncan said. 'We'll take Evanlyn with us. Stay strong Will. We believe in you.' Halt looked down in defeat. He thought about what Will said and couldn't help but be impressed by his courage. He also knew that Will wouldn't forgive himself if anything happened to the princess because of him. 'I don't blame you. Don't worry, I'll survive,' Will said with a strong voice that could be heard all over the field. Morgareth pushed Evanlyn forward, and she ran to her father in tears. He hugged her and felt big gratitude that he had her back. He couldn't imagine living without his daughter. Some people smiled, but their smiles disappeared as quickly as they came, when Will was dragged forward and forced on his knees. The wargals ripped his shirt off, and threw the ripped shirt behind them. Even though Will knew he couldn't escape his fate, he didn't want to go down without a fight. He kicked one warga in his sensitive spot, used his elbow to hit another in the face and quickly rolled underneath the legs of the third. He ran towards his friends. The other two wargals unfroze and caught him before he got very far. Four others came, just to be sure he didn't try to escape again. Morgareth just laughed. 'Feisty, aren't we? Too bad that's not gonna help you. You only made it worse for yourself.' Halt and Horace paled when they heard that. Will was Horace's best friend, although they didn't get along very good in the beginning, he didn't want to think of the possibility he didn't survive. He snapped out of his thoughts when he heard Morgareth call for the devices. A wargal came with a whip with very nasty pieces of metal on the ends, a sharp knife and a bucket full of a kind of liquid. Horace wondered what it was that was in there. Right then Morgareth took the whip and said: 'I've waited long for my revenge Halt. Now how do you feel? Doesn't feel nice, does it? Well Will, any last words?' Will looked up at him with an unknown fire in his eyes and said: 'Go to hell!' When Morgareth heard that, he let the whip come down on Will's back. You saw his face turn into a pained expression, but he didn't make a sound. The whip came down a second time, and a third. After 2 more, Morgareth said to him: 'So you're gonna play it this way, eh? Well, I'll just have to go on until you brake. I want to hear you scream.' And without warning he threw the bucket with liquid over his back. It felt like he was torn apart and then burned down by a extremely hot fire. You saw so much pain in his face, you just couldn't believe he didn't scream. Halt always knew his apprentice was stubborn, but this was not normal. Morgareth became more angry and he took the knife and began to slowly cut a long line across Will's unharmed arm. When still there came no sound, he took Will's chin and made him look him in the eye. Usually when people looked him in the eye, they would run away in fear, but that was not what happened. There was a burning rage in those eyes and such a hate it made him try really hard to not stumble back in fear. When Halt saw this, despite his worry for Will, he couldn't help but feel proud. That was his apprentice down there, sacrificing himself for what he believed in. Just then Will looked at him, locking their eyes in a quiet understanding. Will knew there was a big chance he wouldn't make it, and wanted to apologize to Halt for that fact. He felt like he disappointed his mentor. But the look on Halt's face surprised him. It was not anger, not disappointment, no, it was worry and made the slightest bit proud. It comforted Will. He could do this. But still, if he didn't come back… He spoke up: 'Halt, if I don't make it, tell Alyss I loved her. Tell my friends', a wargal hit him in his face, splitting his lip, but he continued like nothing had happened, 'tell them I did it so they could live in peace.' Morgareth, sensing his chance, took the whip and hit the unexpecting Will as hard as he could on his back. Will let out the most agonizing scream anyone has ever heard. Tears began to fall across his face. The evil torturer hit him even more. He screamed again, but not from pain. He screamed: 'You can torture me, but I won't stop fighting for what's right.' While he said that, he was looking straight at Duncan. A wargal turned him around in such a manner that everybody could see his back. It was a bloody mess of ripped skin and flesh. There were gasps from the spectators, and quite a few winced. But it wasn't over. The wargals held his arms in place, as the evil lord began to hit him in his face, kick him in his stomach and punch him all over his body. He felt the wind get knocked out of him and he was sure he was braking a few bones. The pain was overwhelming and he could his consciousness slipping away. But no, they couldn't even let him have that small pleasure. They threw a bucket full of cold water over him and his mind became clear again. After that, they continued with kicking, hitting and throwing insults at him. 20 minutes later, which seemed like an eternity to Will, they gave him a break. He had a split lip, a lot of forming bruises across his body, some broken bones, and his back didn't get the chance to heal. He hoped it was over, but deep inside he knew it wasn't. But a man could hope. Unfortunately, he was right. Now the turn was to the knife, again. He was turned again. His arms were held in front of him and Morgareth began to ordenly make horizontal cuts in them. Will gritted his teeth and hold, with much effort, his screams. When Morgareth became bored, he decided to see what the stubborn boy would do now. Will lifted his head slowly, to look at his torturer. There was a mass of pain in his eyes, but even now there was that irritating look. The look that wanted to tell him he could not beat him.' He couldn't help but respect him for that. The fact that he respected a ranger, made him furious, and he now made irregular cuts, that hurt like hell and would make nice scars. When he was done with that (still no sound from the boy, btw), he moved to the boy's legs. He didn't remove his pants though, that would have made Morgareth very uncomfortable. He just slaced through the cloth into Will's well-muscled legs. Will was one of the fastest runners there have ever been. When Morgareth was finished, it was hard to recognize the boy he had once been. Sure, he was still very much him, but his body was ripped and broken. All that was left was a mess of blood and some skin. His face was covered with tears and he had the most pained expression on his face. It broke Horace's, Halt's and Evanlyn's heart to see him like that. Again Morgareth took out the bucket and poured all it's contence over Will. Finally he screamed, much to Morgareth's satisfaction. He couldn't take it anymore. It was a bloodboiling, heartbreaking, pained scream. Morgareth decided it was enough and ordered the wargals to leave him. His army followed him as he began to retreat. He looked back once and screamed: 'I'm coming back for my throne, but for now I'm exhausted. Go on, try to save your dear friend. We'll meet again!' When he and his army were gone from sight, Halt, Horace, Evanlyn and Duncan rushed forward to him, along with a few of the kingdom's best medics. They began calling for bandages, water and a piece of wood. The others were trying to comfort, but all Will did, was stare blankly ahead of him. When the supplies came, one of the medics put the piece of wood between his teeth, as the other medics began to wrap him in bandages. The pain finally became to much to bare, and Will gratefully lost consciousness. Evanlyn broke down, even Halt had tears in his eyes. Which shocked everyone else. The Ranger never showed his feelings. But he couldn't care less right now. The boy he saw as a son was hurt. He watched as the unconscious Will was carried away to his house.

**2 weeks later:**

Will was already up on his feet for about 10 days, but he still was not completely healed. Sure his wounds on his body were, most of them, although he would always have many scars. But mentally, he still wasn't completely over it. He had nightmares every night about how he was tortured or worse, about how Evanlyn was being tortured. He still would flinch slightly everytime someone came to close, or touched him. But he knew it wasn't something that couldn't be healed in time. His bow still felt a little awkward in his hands, but he was already used to his knifes. His soundless walking still needed work. Though he was advancing, he thought with joy. He would be himself again soon.

**1 year later:**

Will was completely healed and rarely had any nightmares. He was the same as he always had been. Today Alyss, Jenny, George, Horace and he were going swimming. He knew what that meant, but he would have to tell them anyway, so why not now. Of course there were going to be questions, that was going to be a little problem. Luckily Horace was there and he knew. He would help him, Will was sure of it. Will packed his stuff, said goodbye to Halt and went to the lake they had decided to go to. The others were already in the water. Now that the moment was finally here, he began to have second thoughts. Horace called over to him: 'Come on Will, the water is nice!' Oh, let's just get it over with Will thought, while he took of his shirt and went to his friends. When they spotted him, they all froze. Alyss was the first to speak: 'Will, what has happened to you?' Will answered: 'I think it's time to tell you what happened a year ago.' Everyone came quietly and sat down in a circle around him, with Horace next to him. Horace said to him: 'You know I could tell them, don't you? I'm here for you.' Jenny asked Horace: 'you were there?' Horace just nodded and Will began his story: 'Do you remember the war against Morgareth? Well, I was captured and… '

When he finished his story, everyone (except Horace) was staring at him. How could they not have known this? Poor Will. There was a awkward, but respectful, silence as Will was staring at something far away. He looked up and said: 'Well, I thought you should know. Now, enough of the depressed stuff, let's swim!' And just like that, it was over. Once in a while someone would glance at him, but if he noticed, he didn't show it. The day passed by, and in the end everyone went home in a happy mood. All, except Alyss. She didn't show it, but deep inside her burned a deep hatred for the beast who had done that to him. She swore to take revenge on him for what he did to her man. With that she satisfied herself. One day…


End file.
